Govan Confirms Perenchio Gift Is On Track
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| Claude Monet, The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil, 1881. Jerrold Perenchio collection, promised gift to LACMA |
In an interview with the Beverly Press/Park Labrea News, Michael Govan and LACMA Chief Operating Officer Diane Vesga talk up the Peter Zumthor-designed David Geffen Galleries. They confirm that one major gift is on track: "As for the permanent collection, Govan and Vesga shared that new acquisitions have been made during the construction period. While they did not reveal too many details, Govan reiterated the donation from the late Bel Air resident Jerrold Perenchio."
In 2014 Perenchio promised 47 Impressionist and Modern works to the museum, contingent on timely completion of the Zumthor building. Perenchio died in 2016, and the successive delays in the building's opening raised concerns about the gift's status.
The Perenchio bequest includes works by Manet, Degas, Monet, Caillebotte, Cézanne, Bonnard, Léger, and Magritte.
Comments
> like crap
I notice my comment in the link from 2019 when vlogger William first raised the question about Perenchio's gift. Although my qualms, such as about less display space, haven't changed, I'm less resentful about what Govan, etc, are trying to do. Part of that is being shaken up after visiting the Louvre. That forced me to realize the setup in LA from 1965-1986 was really kind of embarrassing.
Even before then, however, I recall seeing an online review of LACMA posted by a tourist from Minneapolis. She was quite underwhelmed by the museum on Wilshire and must have been accustomed to the late-1880s Beaux-Arts format of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Familiarity sometimes breeds either contempt or normalcy bias.
> during America’s museum renaissance?
Beyond more people respecting Beaux-Arts versus, say, Brutalist, it was a major embarrassment that Los Angeles didn't have a singular, publicly managed art museum until 1965.
https://www.lacma.org/support/building-lacma?tab=lacmas-history#lacmas-history
> At the core of the Ahmanson Gallery was a
> skylighted atrium intended to display large
> works of art and provide a space for parties
> and important events. The museum’s
> second director...spoke for many who
> objected that this expansive hall had
> attained its size at the expense of the
> surrounding galleries. In order to cut costs,
> the galleries had been made narrower
> than originally planned. Critics
> complained that these spaces, which
> overlooked the atrium from a border of
> balconies, were too shallow and difficult
> to navigate. Over time, the open walls
> were filled in with large panels, which
> increased the space available for
> displaying art but dramatically
> altered the original building design.
^ My hunch is all the windows of the Zumthor building will do to the Geffen Galleries what the atrium of the Pereira building did to the Ahmanson Gallery of 1965.
Draperies will be installed on at least some of the windows of Zumthor's building. But the bigger problem is that the thousands of vertical square feet of glass space won't be available for hanging paintings and other art objects on them.